The present invention relates to a plant growing receptacle and associated method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a receptacle for receiving a living plant pot (i.e., a pot in which a living plant is disposed).
There are several different techniques which have been used to sell plants, such as small trees, to a person who wants to place the plant within the ground upon his property.
The person wishing to buy the plant may go to a nursery where the plant is being grown in the ground. However, upon the person selecting the tree or other plant which he desires to purchase, a skilled worker must carefully dig the plant out of the ground, taking care to include the root ball of the plant. If the worker does not include a sufficient portion of the roots of the plant, the plant may die or be damaged significantly. It may not resume growth when it is implanted in the ground at the purchaser's yard. Not only must the worker be careful to include a sufficient quantity of the roots, but the roots usually must be wrapped in burlap and have water applied to them so as to minimize the risk that the roots will cry out before the plant is transplanted. Delay in implanting the plant at its new location can be fatal to the plant. Further, many plants can be effectively transplanted using this technique only during certain times of the year. For example, if a deciduous tree is dug out of the ground after its growing season has started, the plant will likely undergo severe shock, which is often fatal. Finally, this technique is somewhat disadvantageous in that the potential purchaser of such plants must go to a location where the plant is growing in the ground.
As an alternative to having the purchaser select the plant as it grows in the ground, a plant may be dug out of the ground before the consumer has selected the plant. The root ball may be surrounded by burlap and moistened to prevent drying out. The plant could then be placed within a bed of mulch at a location which is remote from the original growing site (and closer to the potential purchaser). However, if the plant is not sufficiently anchored, it may be damaged from blow-over resulting from wind. Further, the roots may go through the burlap if left in place sufficiently long and transplant shock may occur. Although such a technique may lessen the time and skill required to provide the plant to the purchaser upon the purchaser's selection, there is still some time and skill required to remove the plant from the mulch in response to the purchaser's selection. Further, water draining from one plant which is diseased may spread the disease to other plants. Additionally, and like the situation for plants grown in the ground, the purchaser may be reluctant to purchase a plant when it is obvious that the selection has been significantly picked over. For example, if a nursery displays 10 rows of plants, each row having 10 plants in mulch, a purchaser who goes to the nursery after the first 60 plants have been selected may be concerned that all of the good plants have already been taken. The consumer would be able to readily notice that numerous plants have already been taken from the grouping of plants. If a nursery wanted to minimize this risk, the nursery could reorganize the 40 remaining plants as four rows of 10 plants. However, this requires further labor to reorganize the layout of the plants as some plants much be dug out of the mulch and placed back in the mulch at other locations.
Under the circumstances then, the popularity of having nurseries sell plants in containers is readily understandable. When a consumer selects a plant in a container or pot, it may be quickly loaded into the purchaser's vehicle without the need for digging. (Assuming that the plants are grown originally in the pot or container, there is never any need for digging using this technique. However, one might obtain some, but not all of the benefits of pots for the plants by transferring some plants from the ground into pots.) Usually such plants are grown in a soilless rooting medium and are grown above the ground. Most commonly, the pots or containers are made of plastic.
There are numerous other advantages of container or pot grown plants. Usually, more plants can be grown per acre because row spacing for cultivation can be eliminated. The containers or pots prevent roots of adjacent plants becoming intertwined. The trauma of relocating plants, called transplant shock, is eliminated because roots produced remain in the container. The technique is less labor intensive and what labor it uses is mainly unskilled labor. As the plant population may be maintained more densely, the plants are more manageable. Such container-produced plants usually have lighter weight than field-produced plants and this results in increased payloads, thereby reducing freight costs. Unlike field-produced plants, container-produced plants can be sold without concern for the time of the year. In other words, and for example, a deciduous tree may be sold and moved by the purchaser without concern for the fact that the growing season has already started. Container-produced plants usually provide quicker turn-over time from the start to the finished product than field-produced plants. Container-produced plants appeal to garden center operators because of easier maintenance than plants which require burying in mulch or similar steps. Further, plants in pots may be easily rearranged so that purchasers are not discouraged from a picked-over look.
Although container plants have the numerous advantages discussed above, growing and selling plants in pots have numerous disadvantages. Plants, especially trees, in pots will easily upset in a moderate wind unless they are restrained in some fashion. This may cause damage if one plant falls to the ground or falls against another. Such blow over may further cause the loss of expensive fertilizer and potting soil or other materials. A further disadvantage of potted plants is that the root system may be damaged by cold temperatures in the winter. In the summer, the temperature in the soil or soilless rooting medium within the pot may reach such high temperatures that moisture evaporates quickly and growth stops. Under these summer conditions, water is wasted as much of it is used for cooling down the high temperatures of the soil or other rooting medium within the pot. Further, container plants require more water as the water drains and evaporates quickly through the rooting medium. Drainage must be controlled so disease is not transmitted from the run-off water of infected plants.
In addition to the disadvantages noted above, container-produced plants have significant investment costs. The labor and materials for such container-produced plants are concentrated at the beginning of the growing cycle. In view of this front-loading of costs, prudent management of water, fertilizer, etc. is essential. One aspect of this is the need for proper spacing of the plants. This process is costly because it is manually done and must be repeated every year. If the plants are too far apart, the efficiency of the operation is reduced. If the plants are too close together, they may not develop properly.
Numerous techniques have been used to try to minimize the problems associated with container-produced plants, while benefitting from their advantages. For example, the problem of blow-over has been reduced by using guide wires extending from the plant, such as a tree, down to stakes within the ground. Such guide wires may protect against blow-over, but they make it very difficult to move around in the area where the plants are growing. One must be careful to avoid tripping from the guide wires or stakes remaining after removal of the pot. Further, this technique does not address the susceptibility of the root system to damage from temperature extremes.
Another technique has been to pore concrete into a mould and make a six-sided loop which may go around a pot and hold the pot against blow-over. However, this technique does not, in and of itself, provide for proper spacing of the plants. Some plant growing or selling companies have tried to minimize blow-over by poking a hole in the plastic pot in which a plant is disposed and securing it to the ground by use of a stake, such as reinforcing bar (commonly called rebar). This technique does not provide temperature protection.
Yet another technique has involved burying a pot in the ground. Such an empty pot may then receive a pot of the same size in which a plant is disposed. (Generally, such plastic pots used for growing plants are designed to nest, one within the other.) This overcomes many of the problems associated with potted plants, but there are some disadvantages with such a system. In particular, a worker or other person may step into one of the holes if the actual potted plant is removed from the pot which is within the ground. Further, if one wishes to change the spacing in between plants, it may require some time to dig out and move the pots which were within the ground. Additionally, this technique is labor intensive and may require elaborate drainage.
A further arrangement uses a hat-shaped container made of plastic with a hole in the top to hold a container above the ground. The rim of the container sits along the edge of the hole within the top. The hat-shaped container has an open bottom and simply acts as a base to provide a greater width at the bottom of the plant pot. In other words, the plant pot fits within the hat-shaped container or box and the box has an outwardly-extending flange at its base to effectively increase the width of the base. This may somewhat reduce the chances of blow-over, but does not, in and of itself, appear to remedy the problems from temperature extremes and from the annual requirement for manually spacing the potted plants.
Among other disadvantages of many previous systems which have been developed to try to minimize the problems with potted plants are high freight costs. example, the technique described above wherein a concrete ring or loop is placed around the plants either has to be shipped to a particular nursery operation at high expense or the nursery operation must buy a mold and make their own concrete loops on site. Since shipping costs will depend upon the volume as well as the weight of any product which is shipped, techniques which require the use of components taking relatively large amounts of volume are disadvantageous.